This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation in World War II Europe brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction.

"William Hitchcock is, so far as I know, the first to describe the price the 'liberated' paid for being liberated in 1944 and 1945 in Europe, and how painful it was for those who had been oppressed by the Germans to see their towns, homes, and lives fought over and destroyed, even in a good cause. It is a reminder, perhaps very timely, that in every war the ultimate victims are the men, women, and children in the path of the fighting, and that there is no such thing in warfare, nor has there ever been, as a bloodless victory or a 'surgical strike' that spares civilians."ŚMichael Korda